Test, Tang San Exploded

In the time that followed, Jiang Ci'an listened to Xiao Xiao talk about recent events, his entire being relaxing in a way that was rare for him.

Wang Dong'er didn't seem content to just watch, either; she joined the conversation naturally, taking the opportunity to complain and protest about how savage Xiao Xiao was when supervising her cultivation.

Xiao Xiao didn't refute this, merely curling the corners of her lips into an expression that said, "I'm just like this, what are you going to do about it?"

Listening to the two young girls bickering back and forth, Jiang Ci'an didn't interject, simply sitting there quietly and listening.

Just like that, they chatted casually until they finished dinner. Wang Dong'er left first, and afterward, Jiang Ci'an accompanied Xiao Xiao in the backyard for a while longer before returning to his own room.

The door closed, shutting out the nightscape beyond the window.

Jiang Ci'an sat on the edge of his bed and let out a soft breath.

The relaxed look he had worn gradually faded away, the gentle smile in his eyes dimming, replaced by a calm, focused seriousness.

Work and rest must be balanced; now that the relaxation was over, it was time to start handling serious business.

He closed his eyes, his breathing settling into a steady rhythm, and he skillfully sensed his martial soul, his consciousness shifting as he entered a meditative state.

Instantly, the familiar sensation of falling washed over him.

When he opened his eyes again, the ground beneath his feet had transformed into that familiar lawn of Blue Silver Grass.

As always, Jiang Ci'an first cast "Indifference" upon himself.

With his presence masked, Jiang Ci'an activated his "Perspective" to confirm the locations of Tang San and Xiao Wu, then began walking toward them.

He didn't rush to experiment with "Time Control," choosing instead to first sense the area between his brows.

A moment later, he reached a conclusion.

His Eye of Life had been brought into this Virtual World in its entirety; the gentle life force was nourishing his body just as it did in reality.

However, Elder Yi was not there.

Clearly, an independent entity like Elder Yi, even in his state as a remnant soul residing within the Eye of Life, could not enter this Virtual World alongside him.

Still, he had managed to uncover another characteristic of this Virtual World.

Soon, he arrived at the Dorm Seven dormitory.

Pushing the door open and entering, he found few people inside. Aside from Tang San and Xiao Wu, there were three or four work-study students sitting on their beds, either cultivating, chatting, or attending to their own affairs.

The domain of "Indifference" silently and soundlessly swept over them.

In just a moment, the eyes of everyone in the dormitory turned hollow and vacant, their individual consciousnesses suppressed, leaving behind nothing but shells that acted like walking corpses.

"All of you, get out."

As the command fell, the few work-study students stood up in a daze and left the dormitory, closing the door behind them as they went.

Now, only Jiang Ci'an, Tang San, and Xiao Wu remained in the room.

Jiang Ci'an calmly pulled over a chair and sat down, looking at the hollow-eyed Tang San before him, and said slowly:

"Overload the Mysterious Heaven Skill."

The command fell, and Tang San did not hesitate, sitting down cross-legged immediately.

In an instant, the Mysterious Heaven Skill within his body began to circulate in a way that deviated from normal cultivation.

The originally gentle and enduring internal energy became abnormally violent, rampaging through Tang San's body without any regard for the limits of his meridians.

After only a moment, Tang San's body began to swell slightly, and fine cracks appeared on the surface of his skin, as if he were about to be torn apart.

Blood seeped from the fissures, dripping onto the floor and quickly forming a small puddle.

Jiang Ci'an sat in the chair, his golden eyes watching all of this with indifference, though he frowned slightly and commanded again:

"Release the suppression, accelerate the circulation."

Tang San did not speak, but the energy within his body accelerated once more, and under the impact of the violent internal energy, his meridians finally gave way.

"Bang!"

Tang San exploded.

Flesh and blood mixed with energy splattered in all directions, but then, they abruptly stalled in mid-air.

Every drop of blood, every scrap of flesh, and every wisp of scattered energy froze at the moment of the splatter, like an oil painting that had been hit with a pause button.

Jiang Ci'an's expression remained calm; he raised his hand, made a grasping motion, and then turned it gently.

The splattered flesh, blood, and energy began to reverse along the trajectories they had flown, with blood drops flying back, flesh fragments reassembling, and energy flowing back—everything was retreating, as if a movie had been hit with a rewind button.

In an instant, Tang San's body returned to being whole.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, his body intact, his clothes undamaged, and even his swollen frame had shrunk back a size, returning to an intermediate state of the overload circulation from just a moment ago.

Jiang Ci'an calmly raised his hand and struck out with a burst of soul power, which sank into Tang San's body.

The soul power exploded within him, triggering the overloaded Mysterious Heaven Skill, causing the loss of control that should have waited until the critical point to arrive ahead of schedule.

Following that, "Bang!"

Tang San exploded again.

However, this time, the way Tang San exploded was slightly different from the last.

Last time, it started from his upper body; his chest burst open, then his head flew off, leaving only his lower half behind.

But this time, it was his lower body that blew apart.

Watching Tang San, whose body was blown clean from the waist down while his upper half remained relatively intact, Jiang Ci'an looked thoughtful. He gently raised his hand, and everything flew back into place.

Tang San's body was restored.

Then, he exploded again.

Restored again.

Exploded again.

After Tang San's lower body had exploded several times in a row like this, Jiang Ci'an finally stopped restoring him.

He lowered his eyes to look at the deep purple spirit ring beside him, his gaze contemplative as he murmured softly.

"It is basically certain that, just like 'Indifference' and 'Perspective', 'Time Control' has also been greatly enhanced within the Virtual World."

In reality, his ability to interfere with the outside world using 'Time Control' was limited by his spiritual power, spirit power, and various other factors, allowing him to only affect the local time of small objects.

But here, there were no restrictions.

He could pause, accelerate, rewind, and interfere with everything in the outside world at will.

Jiang Ci'an nodded and turned to look at the young girl standing quietly by his side, her eyes vacant.

Xiao Wu.

Jiang Ci'an looked at her and spoke calmly.

"Sacrifice yourself to me."

As the command fell, the girl did not hesitate in the slightest.

She stepped forward and embraced Jiang Ci'an from the side, her slender arms wrapping around his waist as if she wanted to merge her entire being into his body.

A blazing red light rose from within Xiao Wu, the flames consuming her clothes to reveal a body as crystalline and translucent as a ruby.

A vast amount of energy surged into Jiang Ci'an's body like a torrent, yet it did not cause him any discomfort.

Under the gaze of Tang San, whose lower body had exploded and become a moot point, Jiang Ci'an felt all of this quietly, letting Xiao Wu take the initiative as always.

Soon, his spirit power, which had broken through to level twenty-three due to Jiang Ci'an absorbing a four-thousand-year spirit ring beyond his level, surged past the bottleneck and reached level thirty.

Beside the one yellow and one purple spirit ring at Jiang Ci'an's side, a blood-red hundred-thousand-year spirit ring fully condensed.

Skillfully controlling the surging power within his body, Jiang Ci'an's expression remained unchanged. He moved the hundred-thousand-year spirit ring in front of him, condensed his spirit power into a tiny needle point in his palm, and then began to carve directly.